Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Today was my follow up appointment with the Ophthalmologist after the Laser Iridectomy that was done last week. He wanted to make sure my eye pressure was down and that the procedure worked.

I expected a brief exam and that I’d be out the door in just minutes….

Wrong.

When I spoke to the nurse while waiting for the Doctor, I discussed how uncomfortable the procedure was. She said when her husband had it done, it took over 100 blasts of the laser to penetrate his eye. Yikes….I thought 41 was tough.

The pressure in my eye was 36. It was only 25 when I left the office last week and it should have been lower since it had a week to recover.

He said the Prednisolone drops I was using can sometimes cause certain people to have a rise in pressure. He looked inside my eye several times and finally decided maybe he needed to hit it with another laser a time or two. Oh lovely! They have a different laser in the office and I agreed to it.

They put some drops in my eye which made me dizzy, a little nauseous and gave me a headache. I was a bit concerned that it was causing the eye pressure to rise, but I was assured it was just the medicine.

This laser didn’t hurt….but the bright white light was like looking right into the sun and not squinting. I think I prefer the other laser.

The pressure in my eye had dropped before I left the office, so hopefully things will be okay. I walked out the door, again feeling like I had been beat up. It wasn’t a fun morning.

I have an appointment tomorrow to have pressure checked. I’m expecting another quick visit….we shall see! I’m taking Tylenol before I go….just in case!

Al and I finished watching the series, Band of Brothers. It was not the type of movie I normally would like. It was all about war, shooting, killing….no love story, or mystery. We thoroughly enjoyed it though because it was such a good history lesson. It was about the American’s in World War 2 in the European theater. Tonight we are going to start watching Pacific. It’s the continuation that takes place in the Pacific theater. Boy, what those men went through. I have new appreciation for these brave men who fought these wars, and of course the men and women who are fighting right now.

How about the tornados last night? Those poor people are having to deal with more storms tonight. It always amazes me how these storms always seem to strike at night. I sure am glad to be out of the south Georgia area. It seems like South Georgia, Alabama, and the Panhandle of Florida are always in the middle of this. This time it struck a little further north. It’s good to be further south and watching it on the news instead of from my back yard.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The rain throughout the state of Florida, finally came our way yesterday afternoon. We got some pretty hard rain and even some thunder and lightning. Fortunately, there was very little wind, and we didn’t even have to bring in the awning.

Eric, the carpet replacement guy came out yesterday and gave us an estimate. His price was reasonable enough to make it worth hiring, verses doing it ourselves. He will come to us, and we can stay inside the motor home while he’s working. I warned him, I’d be watching his work.

The center area of the motor home has tile, we like it, and we’re not replacing that. For now, we’re going to just replace the front living room carpeting. Later this spring, we’ll have him do the bedroom. I think it’ll be much easier to just do one section at a time, since he will have to move the sofa and captain and copilot chairs and move them into the kitchen area. We’ll need a place to “live” while he’s working.

The cost, including the materials is $800 for the living area and another $800 for the bedroom area. We’re on his schedule for March 12. He’s a pretty busy guy with all the snowbirds in the state right now. I’ll take lots of pictures and let you all know what kind of job he does.

If anyone wants some flooring done, his name is Eric. His phone number is (352) 324-2894. He installs carpeting, vinyl, laminate, whatever you wish. I can’t vouch for his work yet, but his name was given to us by an RV dealer we talked to last year. He seemed professional, and said we didn’t pay him until we were happy. I still intend on getting a few references, but we think he will do a good job. He understands the differences with rv’s compared to residential flooring.

We got to talking to Eric a little bit and he mentioned that here in the town of Zephyrhills was where “snowbirding” began.

The first Snowbirds came to Zephyrhills in the early 1900’s. They drove their vehicles down here and it’s said they brought canned foods, which were opened and heated on the car radiators. They were dubbed, “Tin Can Tourists.”

Eventually the "Tin Can Campers of America" was formed and visitors returned each year to sing songs, exchange stories and enjoy socializing with people from various states. Zephyrhills has a LOT of rv parks and a LOT of visitors during the winter.

When you go drive around here, you see very few Florida license plates, but lots of Quebec, New York, Vermont, Michigan, Maine….etc.

Monday, February 27, 2012

On Sunday morning, we went to the gym, and after a trip home to clean up, we went to visit our friends Rhonda and William. Rhonda and I worked together at USAA Insurance and have tried to keep in touch through the years.

Rhonda, who might be considered a little “tech challenged” had gotten a new camera for Christmas. She couldn’t get it to work, and wondered if it might be defective, so she wanted me to look at it. It took me a minute to realize it was a camera that had a detachable lens and as soon as I put the lens on, it worked just fine. We all got a good laugh at Rhonda’s expense!

We had a wonderful dinner of ham, squash casserole, Cole slaw, sweet potatoes, and rolls. We had a nice afternoon and enjoyed visiting with them again. Thanks guys!

We came home and continued watching the tv series, Band of Brothers. I didn’t think I would like it, but it’s actually a very good series with a lot of history. There is a lot of shooting in the movie (imagine that) and it appears that the shooting makes Baxter crazy. With the surround sound, you feel like bullets are buzzing around the motor home. I guess Baxter notices too, because he gets the crazies every time we play that movie.

We were surprised to hear the Daytona race was delayed due to rain. We had a cloudy day with about two minutes of rain in the morning, but nothing severe, or long lasting. I guess it must have rained pretty hard in Daytona. We have a 50% chance of rain today again, so it may be delayed again today.

I’ve been hearing reports of gas being $6.00 a gallon here in Florida. I understand there are two stations near Disney World that are gouging tourists at that price, but the state average is $3.70 a gallon. It may very well be near that by the summer, but for now it’s only $3.70. Of course, diesel is over $4.00.

The following are some memories from our last visit to the Keys.

How about Picasa’s new feature? It makes for an interesting picture, doesn’t it?

Jeanne’s post reminded me of the beautiful sunsets in the Keys….can’t wait to get back.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Yesterday we went to Outback and had a late lunch. Of course we went to the gym first, so we felt we “deserved” it!

It was a beautiful sunny day with lower temps and no humidity. It was wonderful.

Today it’s cool, cloudy and it rained for about 2 minutes. No problem….it can’t be perfect every day.

We have someone coming over later to give us an estimate for replacing the carpet in the motor home. I expect his price to be way too expensive, but we thought we’d check it out, just to see. I really want the carpet done, but I really don’t want us to have to do it!

Another possible upgrade for sometime in the future is MCD Shades. Our motor home came with the old day/night shades. We haven’t had any problems with broken strings yet (knock on wood), but they get dusty, attract cat hair and don’t give as much privacy as the MCD shades. I think we can install them ourselves, which would save a lot of money. Anyway, it’s something to think about. It looks like it would cost about $270 each for the main living/kitchen windows and a little less for the bedroom windows. I estimated about $1250 for the main windows. That doesn’t include the front windshield or the front door.

The only think I don’t like about the MCD shades is the black “day shade.” I think a nice beige would look nicer inside. I’m not so sure how the beige would look from outside, but it doesn’t matter because they only make the day shades in black fabric.

So….something more to think about.

It’s only a little over 3 weeks until we leave here and head back down to the Keys. We’re hoping my Mom and Brother won’t have any other health issues, and we’ll be able to go. We are both getting a good case of hitch-itch, and we’ve only been here about 6 weeks.

How about all you other snowbirds? When do you head north? It seems like most people around here wait until the first of April. It will be nice to be able to travel around this state and have nice empty campgrounds!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

We planned on heading over to Hillsborough River State Park and taking a nice hike. Unfortunately, we didn’t get motivated too early, and it was noon before we got there. By then, the heat index was 87 degrees. I don’t know what the actual temperature was, but it was muggy. We decided to take one of the river trails since there would be some shade. For some reason, that humidity was bothering me, but we did manage a pretty good hike.

It stayed very warm all day and the a/c had to be on until we went to bed. Sometime overnight a cool front came in and it’s only supposed to be 69 today. Yea!

We’re going to hit they gym this morning and then see what the day brings. At least we have a beautiful, sunny, cool day with low humidity.

Since we initially started making plans to become full-timers, I have been trying to keep an eye on the weather in different parts of the country. Ideally, you visit each area during the time of the year during the best weather. For instance I probably don’t want to visit the Florida Keys in hurricane season, or Alabama in during the spring tornado season.

In reading other blogs, I haven’t found anywhere except California, where Rick and Paulette are, that have weather that is as warm as it is here in Florida. Granted, Florida is having an unusually warm winter, but then so is the rest of the country.

So what do you think? Where do you think is the best place to winter? The Arizona desert, the California desert, Florida, southern Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arizona? I know many people want more remote places that aren’t so crowded…and it’s difficult to find any place like that in Florida during the winter months.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Al spent the day in Lakeland in a class and I spent the day home cleaning and straightening. These cabinets tend to get messy pretty quick so I did some organizing and tossing!

I have decided that the steam mop doesn’t work on our shiny tile floor and it’s going back.

I shampooed the living room carpet…again. It sure manages to get dirty fast. What were they thinking putting carpet in the area where you have to walk right in from outside. I guess we need to start taking off our shoes each time. If I could just muster up the enthusiasm, we’d remove the carpet and install Allure flooring…..just can’t seem to forget how much work it involved the last time.

We visited with our neighbors for a few hours last night. They live on the island of Newfoundland. How interesting to hear about such a far off place. It cost them over $400 to get their motorhome off the island, via the ferry. This ferry is so large that it holds 150 motor homes. It’s a 6 hour ride.

They live out in the country and routinely see Moose on their property. A while back a mother Moose gave birth to twins and they grew up on their property. How cool would that be. They are going to look for the photos to show us. Seeing a moose is one of my top things!

They drive 2600 miles to spend each winter in Florida. That’s a long and expensive trip for them.

I had to Google Earth Newfoundland just to see exactly where it was. I knew that when you got up to Maine, you kept going, but that was about all I knew.

Where they used to live, they would look out their kitchen window to see an iceberg and passing whales.

You can occasionally see whales in Florida, but not too many icebergs!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

We had a squall line move in late yesterday bringing some rain. Unfortunately, it also brought back the humidity. I’ll be turning the a/c back on pretty early today.

When I checked the weather yesterday it looked like we were going to get some strong wind and rain. The radar showed an ugly looking squall line heading right for us. Fortunately, it was nothing, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t do any worrying.

I know I need to get over my fear of being in a motor home in bad weather. It’s kind of hard to travel if you worry so much about the weather.

Al got his eye appointment done yesterday and everything was fine except he has droopy eyelids which are affecting his vision. There is a surgical procedure (here we go again) for that. He’s wanted that surgery for years, but it has to get bad enough first.

We went to the gym yesterday afternoon, for a while. I took it a little easy and I didn’t do anything but the bicycle and treadmill. Supposedly I was able to resume my normal activities, but I just felt straining on weight machines might not be the best idea. My eye felt a bit gritty when I put my contact in yesterday, so I ended up taking it out and wearing glasses all day….which I hate.

We came home and watched the Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn, Part One. It was good and I can’t wait for part two.

Al has a continuing education class today in Lakeland, and I plan to clean up around here. It always seems there are things to do. I have a linen closet and a few cabinets that need my attention….as well as laundry.

Speaking of laundry. I saw something funny that I know all the women will appreciate.

The park we’re in is a snowbird park and most everyone is here for the whole winter. Our neighbors own their lot and they have a clothes line, like the one below.

Apparently, he is in charge of hanging the laundry out to dry.

A while back, I noticed he went outside and hung out a load of clothes. Now, a woman would have put the “unmentionables” on an inside and towels and t-shirts on the outside, Right?

Well, when I looked over I saw all of her bra’s and panties all on the outside row, just a waving at the world!

I had to laugh. I told Al…. “I’ll bet she’s going to have a fit when she sees it.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, he was back rearranging things and her undies were all hidden in the middle rows!

That was several weeks ago and we have never seen her undies again! I guess he learned his lesson! I wish I could have taken a picture, but I thought it might seem a little rude.

Men……..

The picture below was taken from our old back yard. One of our many Cardinals. At least the new owners also liked birds and were going to continue to feed them.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Prior to the procedure, I read up on it on the internet, and it sounded like a very simple, painless procedure. The doctor uses a laser to poke a small hole in the iris.

What it didn't say was that is would take 41 attempts to get the job done. Evidently, it takes more than one laser blast to go through the cornea. He just kept hitting the laser and each little blast was painful. It was kind of like a jackhammer, verses a bullet.

It was more painful than I expected. I only expected one little blast from the laser and it would be done…but he kept it up and kept it up.

I started getting a headache immediately, so they gave me some extra strength Tylenol. When I walked out a few minutes later Al said I looked like I’d been beaten up. I felt like it too.

I have to go back next week for a check up. I hope it was successful. I’m not looking forward to getting the other eye done.

We went straight home and I laid down for a while until my headache got better, then we went and got some Lucas Bio Medic Fuel Sterilizer. We found out that we should be adding this when we’re sitting for a while to prevent algae build up in the fuel tank of the motor home. Since we’ve been sitting over a month, we decided to go ahead and get that done.

We made a quick run to Camping World, then home and I had a 3 hour nap! That procedure certainly took it out of me.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

We are enjoying a few days of cooler temps and low humidity. It was a cool 50 degrees this morning, but the sun is out and it’ll warm up nicely.

Unfortunately the humidity and warmer temps are on their way back. I like the temperature to be warm enough for no heat and cool enough for no a/c.

My “surgery” for my right eye is today. All it is is a laser that makes a tiny hole in my iris. I don’t expect it to be painful. I hope I am right!

Yesterday, we visited Mom a while then went to Sam’s Club and picked up a Shark Steamer Mop. Mom has had one for a while and loves it. I watched an infomercial the other night and decided I needed one too.

Sam’s Club had a nice one, but the cleaning pad is not your normal smooth micro fiber. It’s a bumpy type of pad, and I wondered if it would be as good as the smoother micro fiber padl. Half of the motor home has a shiny marble looking tile. I normally just take a damp towel and scoot it around with my feet.

Unfortunately, the thick bumpy pad on the steam mop, leaves streaks on my floor and it looks terrible. It’s going back today. I may get another one with a regular micro fiber pad and see if that works better. It’s a nice concept but with my shiny floor it has to be dried and shiny smooth. It would probably be fine on a different type of tile.

We already have reservations at Sunshine Key Rv Resort for two weeks starting March 21st. This morning I made reservations for another two weeks, so we will be there over a month. We can only stay there 14 nights, then we have to be out (or off the Thousand Trails membership) for 7 nights before we can book TT again. So, we have a week in between the two reservations where we might be homeless. Anyone know of a good homeless shelter in they Keys? Of course we’ll need full hook-ups! We can stay at Sunshine Key, I’m sure, but their weekly rate is $399…..yikes!

This trip isn’t going to cost us the same as last time, where we paid $3.00 a night. No…..this one is FREE! We get our first 30 nights free, so this is better yet. After the 30 free nights, it’s going to cost $3.00 for the rest of the year. If it wasn’t for that pesky week in between, we’d be in real good shape! We don’t know where we’ll go in the off week.

We’re not 100% sure we will be able make the trip, but we needed to make reservations, just in case. We need to make sure my brother is still doing okay, since he will have to take care of Mom. I guess it’s like any other plans….they are always in jello anyway!

Here are just a few memories from our last Keys trip.

We had such a good time and you just don’t find any better kayaking then the Keys!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

We were both starved so we headed out to a local steakhouse for an early dinner. I had a steak and he had the catfish. The waitress could have been better, but the food was good.

We skipped the gym yesterday. Al is still sore from the last work-out. We did a little shopping then headed on home.

The sun finally came out and we ended up with a pretty nice day with no rain. Another cold front is working it’s way south and we may get a little more rain today but nothing severe is predicted. Right now the sun is starting to come out. Most of these fronts fizzle out before they get to central Florida, but these are the kinds of storms that used to drive us crazy when we were in Georgia. We were in extreme south Georgia, right above the Florida panhandle. That area, and including the Florida panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi really get hammered in the spring with bad weather from passing cold fronts.

These cold fronts are what bring the terrible tornados to Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. They were pretty bad in Alabama the past two winters.

I often read about some rv’ers heading to the Panhandle during the winter or spring…and I have to question why? The weather here is so nice, why do you want to go there now?

Although we love our new full timing life style, I have to admit, I have been missing spring in south Georgia. I have not been missing the crappy weather, or our house, but I do miss our birds and spring blooms.

We had such a beautiful piece of property. It was so private that we could leave our curtains open and even walk around the yard in our pajamas.

We cultivated the birds and had so many birds all year long. We loved them all the time, but we really enjoyed them in the spring when they would start preparing for nesting season.

I decided to look over my old blog and reminisce a little. Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets about our decision to sell the place and move on, but I can still miss my birds, can’t I?

Warning…..

The following pictures contain nudity!

This guy is a a naked and just hatched Blue Bird.

His name was Junior. The other 3 eggs never did hatch, but Junior grew up and fledged the nest. We saw him frequently with his parents.

This is another of the many batches of Blue Birds that we had in the special nest boxes that Al installed all over the property.

This is an adult Eastern Bluebird that lived on our property. We had lots of them.

This guy was just trying to work up the nerve to jump out of his cozy nest box.

We had tons of birds, especially during the winter. Our birdseed bill was pretty expensive.

Lots of flowers and spring was my favorite time of the year because of the beautiful and fragrant Wisteria.

Hydrangea

The cats liked to bird watch also.

I think I need to go out and see some nature. I sure don’t want to move back to Georgia, but we sure did have a pretty place with lots of critters. I am not regretting our decision to sell the place, but I always loved the spring (except for the tornados).

Saturday, February 18, 2012

It looks like the new word verification has been a hot topic on quite a few blogs recently. I’ve noticed quite a few bloggers that have finally turned it off. Thank goodness!

Evidently there were quite a few that didn’t realize they had it turned on. I double checked mine just to be sure. I’d have been awfully embarrassed if mine had been on after all the complaining I did about it on others blogs.

When I checked my account, I decided to look through some of the “spam” comments that blogger had caught for me. To my surprise I found three comments that Rick made that were in the spam folder. I don’t know why they singled Rick out. There was nothing in his comment that resembled any spam. I guess I will check them once in a while from now on.

If you are still one of those bloggers who use the comment verification, and want to turn it off, but don’t know how, check out Rick's blog for detailed instructions. I know a lot of bloggers that are still reading, but not commenting on blogs with word verification/aggravation turned on. Me included!

I noticed a lot of people turned theirs off yesterday, but this morning I ran across two that hadn’t. grrrrr No comments left my me!

It was cloudy yesterday and we got some light rain off and on. There’s a cold front trying to come through and we may get some more rain tomorrow. It’s okay though, we really need some rain, and we’re no longer dependent on the week-ends for our fun.

Al worked Thursday and Friday, and I kept busy around here doing those procrastinated paperwork type things. When went to the gym Thursday and evidently both of us overdid it a bit, because we were both a bit sore that night

I mentioned in my last blog post about a flock of birds around here that I haven’t been able to identify. They buzz around in a huge group and never sit still long enough to photograph. I did manage to get some long distance shots of them in the air. I’m hoping Judy, or someone else can help me identify them.

They aren’t as large as they appear in the photographs. They have a yellow belly, and there are hundreds of them all together.

The pictures are bad, but they were moving so fast and were at a pretty good distance. I’m pretty sure they are not Cedar Waxwings.

Any ideas?

I ordered a dash cover for the motor home, a couple weeks ago from Rv Toy Store. I immediately got a receipt showing my order was placed, but there was no shipping date or tracking number like I normally get from online purchases.

I waited a sufficient amount of time with no tracking number, or order, so I sent them an email for a status. They never bothered to respond, so I called them. It turns out that the company they use to make these dash covers doesn’t have a pattern for our motorhome and I was out of luck. Really? Thanks a lot!

I always post about products we buy and like, so I thought I’d post about one we don’t love! I don’t think I’d ever purchase anything from them after this experience. It could have been a fluke, but they lost any future business from me.

I really want a dash cover to protect the dash from little kitty claws, so I found another place that’s actually on the Lazy Days premises. Lazy Days uses them for a lot of their custom work, so I know they’ll do a good job. The place is Wade Rv. They are more expensive, but they custom fit the cover to the motor home. The only problem is that they need the motor home there to make a pattern.

That means a day spent at Lazy Days and a $350 bill. We can’t do it until we leave here anyway, so it gives me a chance to look around. We may have to leave here a day before we head to the Keys and get that done.

When I worked at USAA Insurance here in Tampa, I had a co-worker, also named Karen. We became good friends, but lost touch the past few years.

Here is a picture of Karen and her husband Ken (that I stole from her Facebook page).

Karen and I recently reconnected via Facebook and are making plans to get together soon.

She told me she has an old friend named David that is also an rv’er and travels around just like we do. She thought we might run into him and his wife since they like to to kayak and hike just like we do. Given the number of rv’ers in this state right now, I figured it was unlikely we would run into this unknown couple.

Anyway, Karen called me yesterday. Evidently, while reading my blog and some of the comments, she noted that her friend David reads this blog and we read theirs as well!

In fact, Karen told me that the picture on their blog of David and Sherry together, was taken by Karen’s husband Ken when they visited with them last winter.

Karen and David went to high school together and have kept in touch all these years! We have wanted to get together with David and Sherry ever since they arrived in Florida.

Every so often something like this happens to make me realize what a small world we are living in.

Al worked yesterday, and I worked around the house resolving some billing issues with our health insurance. We have very good insurance, but when you use an out of network provider, it gets to be a real hassle. I think I got it resolved and I felt very good about it. I’d rather clean someone else’s toilet than deal with medical insurance billing! I tend to procrastinate until I can’t procrastinate any longer!

We have a large flock of small birds around here that I’m hoping to photograph and identify today. They all fly together in the same direction, but they don’t ever seem to land. They just flit around from one place to the other. They remind me of schooling fish. They seem to have a yellow underbelly. Anybody have any idea what they might be? I feel sure they have migrated here for the winter. Normally, I would have gotten out and photographed those birds….I’m falling down on the job, but today’s going to be the day!

Someone sent me this picture of a beautiful black fawn. Isn’t he adorable?

anyone out there who uses the word identification on their blogs….if you’re not getting as many comments, it may be because the people can’t read the words.

I went to two blogs this morning and had a heck of a time deciphering the words I had to type in to be able to leave a comment. After the third time on one, I said the heck with it and closed out. I think they have changed these because the words seem to be harder to read.

When I read blogs on my Droid, I rarely leave comments if I have to use the word verification because it’s harder on a small keyboard.

If I try once or twice and don’t get the right word….a comment isn’t left.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

The cold front only lasted two nights and not it looks like it will be time to turn back on the a/c.

Yesterday started out with Al heading off early to do some of his few remaining pest control accounts.

After my normal coffee/computer time, I had plans to tackle a few paperwork tasks around here.

Unfortunately, that all changed when I realized I must have left my purse at the doctors office the day before. I very rarely take my purse anymore, since Al drives and he carries the cash and a debit card. No reason to lug around the heavy purse. I stick a lipstick in my pocket and carry my Droid phone…what else do I need?

I called the doctors office….they said the cleaning crew hadn’t found it.

I was skeptical. I knew it wasn’t in the motor home or car and we hadn’t been anywhere else after leaving the doctors office. I knew it was either there, or someone had picked it up.

I decided to drive down and check for myself. I know how cleaning crews are. If they don’t see any dirt, it doesn’t get cleaned.

I got down there and one of the women techs came out and said they cleaned the office real good last night and there was no purse left there. Absolutely, no way was it there. Still, I was skeptical.

So…..I asked if they minded if I checked the rooms myself. I was in 4 different rooms, but I wasn’t sure exactly which four.…and they have a bunch of rooms. I found my purse in the second room I checked. It had fallen down by the wall and the color blended in with the color of the carpet. Yeah…they clean real well. Boy was that woman embarrassed after assuring me how well they cleaned!

At least I found it and I could breathe a sigh of relief!

So after that little 18 mile jaunt, I decided to go to the optometrist and get my new reading glasses and change my contacts. The trial pair he gave me weren’t working so I need to try a different brand.

I got home, messed around on the computer, trying to put some music on my iPod shuffle and on Al’s Fuze mp3 player.

While watching the Grammy’s the other night, we discovered that we really like Adele. What an amazing singer she is.

Unfortunately, I downloaded her hit Rolling in the Deep and I got a confirmation, but no song. It shows that I have down loaded the song…but I can’t find it. They have a cloud program and I thought I might have messed up when I downloaded it. I tried another song…no problem..it came right through.

Unfortunately, there is no where (that I could find) to get a live person to help you and their online help system was of no help. I finally decided to download the song again..another $1.29. It told me I had already downloaded the song and asked if I was sure I wanted it again. Yes…and the same problem. The song was nowhere to be found. I did get a message saying there was a problem and they were working on it…but no song and still nothing this morning. grrrrrrr..

It seems I am not up on this stuff anymore and everything has changed since I last downloaded any music. I don’t want to have to do a lot of learning or thinking…I just want what I want when I want it. It might have been cheaper to download the whole album. The problem with that is getting it onto my iPod and Fuze!

As hard as I try, I can’t seem to keep up with all the technology.

I guess I’ll have to work on it more today because we found we enjoy working out at the gym much more with some peppy tunes to listen to!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

We awoke yesterday morning to a temperature of 25 degrees….which as it turns out, is the temperature our heat pumps quit working!

We were told the heat pumps didn’t work in temps lower than 40 degrees, but that turned out to be false. They have kept us nice an warm, until it got down to 25 degrees. This was the first time they shut down. We sure are glad to have heat pumps this year, verses the propane furnace we used last year. Once the heat pumps quit, we fired up the propane furnace. It kicked right on and warmed things up but was a little stinky from not being run for so long. It was also a little noisier and it frightened poor little Baxter.

I went to my eye appointment yesterday morning and the ophthalmologist confirmed what the optometrist found. I do have “narrow angles” which causes the pressure inside my eyes to build up. He gave me a good exam and scheduled me for the iridectomy procedure next Tuesday. He is only doing the right eye, then I will have to go back to get the left eye done. I would have preferred to get them both done the same week, but he prefers to do one eye at a time. He’s a great doctor and has quite an impressive wall of degrees and awards. If anyone needs a good Ophthalmologist in the Tampa Bay area, Dr. Leonard Cortelli is the guy to see.

Blogger friends Sherry and David from In The Direction of Our Dreams, are facing some tough times. If you haven’t already, perhaps you could send them some positive thoughts.

Who is Paul McCartney? I’ll be you all know! Evidently when he sang on the Grammy’s the other night, Twitter lit up with people asking who he was! Makes you feel old, doesn’t it? They were asking if he was somebody new?

We’ve not done any kayaking or hiking lately, so I have no new pictures to post. I didn’t think anyone would want to see picture of sweaty people working out at the gym!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Well a real cold front finally arrived here in central Florida. It’s okay though, since it’s only going to last two days and then we’ll be back into the 70’s. You gotta have some cold weather so that you can look forward to spring.

Nothing fun has been going on, but a lot has been happening.

On Thursday I went to the eye doctor to get a new prescription for contacts. The optometrist discovered that I have “narrow angles.” He said it could lead to an acute narrow angle glaucoma event, and referred me to an ophthalmologist. I’ve done some reading on this and it’s fairly common, especially in women as they age. The treatment is to place a hole in the iris to allow pressure to escape. The “narrow angle” blocks this natural release. It’s done with a laser and from what I gather is simple and painless. I have an appointment tomorrow. I hope he can do the procedure then and not have to make me come back another day.

On Friday, we ended up taking my brother to the ER thinking he may have had a mini stroke. He was kept overnight and given a bunch of tests. They concluded that he didn’t have a stroke, but that his blood pressure was high. Hopefully he will smarten up and start taking better care of himself. Of course the first thing he did when he left the hospital was grab a cigarette. You can’t help someone who won’t help himself. Just ask the family of Whitney Houston!

We have been trying to get to the gym most every day, but two days spent at the hospital have kept us from it the last few days. We plan on going this morning and hopefully it won’t be crowded. After the gym, I think the rest of the day will be spent lounging around the house. We just finished watching the first (and only) season of the series, Homeland. What a good series. I can’t wait for the new season.

We have gotten several things sold from our Craig's list add. Carolyn bought our little ice-maker and last night our great little rv freezer went to a new home. We sure hated to see it go, but we just don’t want to have to drag it around. We also sold our Roadmaster brake buddy and a utility trailer. We need to go through things in the shed and see what else we can dispose of. We kept too much “stuff” when we sold the house. We just ran out of time and energy! Al bought a few new shirts and we were good…we tossed out the same number of old ones! We’re trying to follow the one in, out rule!

Baxter has been a little stinker lately. We changed their food again. We think we may stick with Royal Canin brand. He loves their kitten food (and so do the others). I don’t know if it’s the new food, or the fact that we got the fleas under control, but he’s feeling like a million dollars and tearing around like a crazy cat!

He really enjoyed Margie and Carolyn's visit the other day. He likes to show off for company.

He has his own “bowls” that he loves to lay in. We’ve had to purchase new ones as he grows. The other night, he found this one.

In the above picture, you can see the blue bowl which was the first one he played in when he was just a baby.

He was real tiny when he first started playing in that bowl.

The next picture is when he was outgrowing the blue bowl.

Then we had to go buy the orange one when he outgrew the blue one.

Then we had to buy the red one.

Then he found this new one on his own. It’s a container that holds 16 ounces of baby spinach…….